Our new interview with GIRLZEROTH (Cimahi/Bandung Death Metal)
Tuesday, 20 May 2025
At: Papap’s house/Pieces Records, Ujung Berung
(Interpretation by Popo, vokalis Jasad and Demons Damn)
Kieran James: Tell me about the new album. What’s the progress?
Nenx (Girlzeroth guitarist): The progress in Girlzeroth I will release second album on 16 Januari 2026.
KJ: What’s the title?
Nenx: The Fight Against Stigma. The stigma is for the social issue, about the life every day in here.
Nenx: All songs are with English language.
KJ: Why did Gina leave the band?
Nenx: She talked to me as she wanted just to be a housewife and focus on her children. And then I prepare for the second album, a six-song list, all of them in English title.
KJ: Do you have English lyrics to get sales overseas?
Nenx: Because I want to
explain an explore my music in a universal context and go international maybe.
As I want to start to spread our music to abroad.
KJ: Did you look for woman vocalist first to replace Gina?
Nenx: I was hunting for female vocalist. I wanted to ask Popo to join Girlzeroth before she joined Jasad. I asked Auryn but she was busy because her new band are in the process of recording. When I asked Auryn she was in the middle of the process of recording her new album for the band.
KJ: Why you don’t ask Wong to come back?
Nenx: Yes, but she never answered.
Popo (Jasad and Demons Damn vocalist): We had a plan to have a girl band, with the drummer from Soul of Slamming (Fifi) but it never happened because we had many miscommunications. It’s hard as we talked in many WhatsApp group chats.
KJ: What is the style of music hfor the new album? Any change?
Nenx: Yes, the material in music—we don’t just stay with death metal. I will mix so many subgenres—groovy DM and technical DM. I try to mix various kinds of subgenres of death metal. So now I try to adapt to the male vocalist. It will have a little change.
Popo: How does it change to play music after married life?
Nenx: First I had to have adaptations in terms of the time. I needed to take more time because he [Ades, husband of Nenx] is my tutor when I learn to play guitar. He is just on the back of the stage to help me.
Popo: He had a famous band Kotak; it was a popular band in Indonesian rock.
Nenx: I have to experience so many new techniques playing guitar. I learnt something new from my husband. I got the new skills that I did not know before. We have signed up with the label Underground Syndicate from France/Bali. The founder’s name is David. He is the guitarist of Enmity band. He is the ex-sound engineer of Nile, Cryptopsy, Behemoth and many other bands.
Popo: Before she started marriage, she was afraid that her husband would refuse for her to play music. Nenx never asked but she thought that he would refuse. She felt a little bored when not playing guitar. Her husband asked her why she never played guitar again. I asked her: “Why you don’t ask your husband first?” To me this is a funny story.
KJ: Do you think that Popo is more feminist than you in outlook?
Nenx: Finally, I choose that way. I don’t think about the gender whether it is woman or man. The first time Girlzeroth had a male vocalist, so it does not matter for now. So now it is Girlzeroth with only one girl. It’s not about the gender, I am thinking about the music.
Popo: In the past I had a little bit of discrimination. I don’t know about Nenx. I started playing DM before Nenx. The whole of the audience in the underground music scene think sometimes that we are second-rate population. “We are not good at playing music, it’s just a trend,” some people think. Nenx and I try to prove that we are serious to play DM. We are girls not only following the man. We focus on the music and try to prove that we have a talent for playing DM. We are not followers; we are not posers. In the old times, such as when I started music when I was still at school, people did not know whether I had a talent in the music. They might think because I’m a girl that I’m not good at playing music. I had discrimination when I was younger.
KJ: Did Nenx experience any discrimination?
Nenx: Yes, I feel the same. I had more discrimination after I had family and husband.
Popo: People think that if she is a mother she should stay at home and be a housewife.
KJ: What’s the future plan for Girlzeroth?
KJ: Can the record label help you to tour Europe?
Nenx: He is only releasing CDs in Indonesia. If he can bring Girlzeroth to Europe it is very expensive.
KJ: What do you think about Bandung DM scene compared to before?
Nenx: For the musicians in the DM, now it is harder to get connections to the right people who can help us to promote the music. It can be a reason--that we do not nongkrong as often now. It can be harder to get connection.
KJ: Because the original people got older?
Popo: Yeah.
Nenx: I think that many bands in BDG have the same quality of sound in the music. There is no difference between one and the other. The sound quality is the same across many bands. I think it is the quality of the sounds [not of the music] that are the same.
*****THE END*****
